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With the POS in the White House, and his blubbering accomplices on the far right crazier than ever, it may not seem like there’s much to be happy for this Thanksgiving.

I’m not going to lie and say “All is well, don’t worry, be happy.” All is not well. All may not be well anytime soon—and things could get decidedly worse. My biggest concern is that Mueller reports extensive criminal behavior by Trump, Trump Jr., possibly Jared and who knows who else—and then Trump declares Mueller a Communist Islamic Terrorist Hillary-loving Liberal whom no one should believe and who moreover should be imprisoned—and Trump’s base buys it bigtime, stages immense open-carry rallies, and threatens massive civil unrest if anyone—Congress, the Justice Department—attempts any move against him.

What then?

Well, we’ll cross about that bridge when we get to it. But it’s not too soon to think about it. In times of crisis, each citizen is called upon to do his duty, as he or she sees fit. And our duty, as Americans, is to protect the Rule of Law, for which centuries of our forebears fought and died.

Because, really, it can be impossible to tell the difference. Bots (often from pro-Trump Russian interests) and pro-Trump human beings both resort to the same techniques: outrageous lies, preposterous accusations, the usual smears against the usual suspects (Hillary, Obama, Democrats), attacks on non-usual suspects who are newcomers to the political scene (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come under heavy fire on rightwing assault vehicles like Breitbart), vulgarities, sexual innuendoes, and in general, the stupidest, easiest-to-disprove claims the right generates to disseminate anger and doubt.

Consider, for example, a supposed person named Robert Manning, who is one of my Facebook “friends.” I don’t know who he is, or where he lives: the information on his Facebook page may or may not be real. Whoever or whatever he is, he is one of the most rightwing, pathologically sick Trumpites I’ve yet to come across—and that’s saying a lot! He loves to put up posters with moronic sayings against Democrats—sayings that are demonstrably untrue, and that show a bigotry that is despicable in our multi-cultural democracy. Let me share a couple of his phony posters. I doubt that Manning himself designed them, or even came up with the memes; he’s an old man who most likely doesn’t possess computer skills. Rather, I suspect, Manning is supplied these posters by pro-Trump forces, who may well be Russians.

This one is heinous.

It implies that only Republicans care about our men and women in uniform—a smear that has been a favorite of rightwing white nationalists in the Republican Party for decades, but one that has gained urgency with the advent of Trump who, with his constant attacks on military heroes, is the most disrespectful (of serving Americans) of any President in history.

Then there’s this one, a not-so-thinly veiled attack on women and people of the Islamic faith.

Trump has made it permissible for neo-nazis to insult and demean both women and Muslims, and with this nasty little poster, Manning is doing his part to rile up hatred on the right. Manning, how about we make a deal: Ocasio-Cortez can’t wear her headscarf in Congress, and Christians can’t wear crosses.

Speaking of Christians, it wouldn’t be a Trumpite rightwinger if it wasn’t promoting its own religion, and Manning does that particularly well.

He seems to be some kind of evangelical Christian, perhaps a Catholic of the fascist type, and his posts are frequently filled with “Blessings” and references to “God.” In this, Manning borrows from the Trump playbook to demean his political enemies (Democrats) with the implication that “America” can’t be great “again,” and “God” will not love America, until everyone in it, or the majority of us, is as batshit born-again crazy as he is. No room for diversity in Manning’s theocratic dictatorship. Only his brand of “Christians” need apply.

I referred briefly to Manning’s misogyny earlier, but I need to do so again, as he so frequently attacks Democratic women with even more viciousness than his hero, Trump, if that’s possible. This crowbar to the knees against Dianne Feinstein speaks for itself in violence, ill-feeling and lies.

Here’s one more that’s a real howler, considering that Trump “won” the election only with the help of Putin, who undoubtedly has “the goods” on Trump, possibly the pee tape, more probably evidence of serious financial wrongdoing by the Trump Organization.

It is indeed funny that Manning is now pretending to be upset at foreign meddling in our elections, given what we know of Russian collusion. He has zero proof–zero!–of any non-citizens voting–show us one, Manning, one non-citizen who voted!–but he doesn’t need any proof, because in the Trump’s War on Truth, to make the allegation is enough. This line of attack is so stupid, it makes me wonder why Manning has been instructed by his handlers to bring up the topic in the first place. My hunch (and that’s all it is) is that it’s somehow designed to pave the way for Trump to fire Mueller and discredit (if not deep-six) his report. I don’t know how, but that’s the goal.

Manning posts so much fake bullshit that I could cite it all day, but I have room only for one more: another attack on a woman, and this time a Black woman: Whoopie Goldberg.

He might have chosen Meghan McCain or Abby Huntsman for his diatribe against a popular morning TV program, but no, he needed a Black woman to stir up the bile in Red State trailer parks against “them.” One might have thought, not that long ago, that displaying such open hostility to women and minorities would be reserved for men’s clubrooms at all-white country clubs in lily-white suburbs. No more. Nowadays, white supremacists like Manning have been emboldened by their Leader to haul their bigotry out in the open and celebrate their racism.

I show you Manning’s deplorable posters not to give him any more publicity than he deserves, but because it’s always a good idea to personalize an opponent, to put a human face on him (if, indeed, Manning is human). People like Manning are a severe problem for America. Everything he stands for is obviously odious, but also patently false. And in this, too, Manning has borrowed a tactic from Trump (who borrowed it from Goebbels): Tell a big, huge lie, and repeat it often. There are enough unstable people on the Trump right wing who will believe anything, as long as it’s directed towards people and groups they hate (Blacks, women, liberals, Muslims, gays).

The larger question remains unanswered: What does he get from such stupid stuff? Does he feel, in his life that may be small and have unaccomplished little, like he is somehow making a mark on the world? Does he have repressed anger so great that it needs to seep out like sewage in horrid attacks on his fellow human beings, none of whom has done anything against him? Or, maybe, is he getting paid by his Russian-Trump overlords to spread disinformation and bad feeling? We don’t know the precise answer, but we do know, beyond doubt, that Manning and people like him must be stopped—and the only ways to stop them are through elections, through compelling Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms to more rigorously patrol their posts, and to educate the American people that Trump is a menace—and so is Manning.

The Blue Wave. I’m grateful that millions and millions of Americans, including some who voted for Trump in 2016, have finally realized what a disgusting pig he is. We won the House in a historic landslide, we won more Governorships than ever before, and the only reason we didn’t win Florida and Georgia was because of rampant election fraud by Republican officials. We’ll retake the Senate in 2020.

The criminal case against Trump. I’m thankful that Robert Mueller has remained steadfast in pursuit of the criminal in the White House, Trump. Despite the threats, insults and smears against them, Mueller and his team continue to pile up indictments and guilty pleas. The wall is closing in on Trump; it’s only a matter of time.

Trump melting down. I love watching this morally bankrupt “President” freak out and lose it as his base crumbles and his days of freedom shrink. He knows it’s coming: indictment, embarrassment, impeachment, possibly prison time for his family and himself. He knows with what contempt most Republicans view him. He’s visibly losing mental and emotional control, live, on T.V. It’s fun to watch.

Suburban women who voted Democratic. It was enormously gratifying to see these red or purple districts peel away from Trumpism. These suburban women finally returned to their senses. They want morality and decency in our government. Trump, and the trolls around him, are the opposite of moral and decent: they are corrupt to their cores. Welcome back to the Democratic Party, suburbanites! We won’t let you down!

The Resistance. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart, all you stalwart members of The Resistance. You kept the faith through some very tough times. You never flagged or faltered. The spirit of decency and democracy burns brightly inside you. When the History of this foul, base administration is written, your names will blaze forth in glory!

Now, please accept my wishes, Dear Readers, for a happy, healthy Thanksgiving. I will post in the following days as much as I can.

While Trump and his ever-smaller, beleaguered cult are crowing about gubernatorial elections in Florida and Georgia they “won” through voter suppression by Republican officials, here’s a story about real victories that are causing heartburn in Republican circles.

California—the fifth-largest economy in the world, the nation’s biggest, richest state, successfully governed by Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats for the last eight years, leader in the fight against climate change, and with a $40 billion surplus*—took the Blue Wave and made it a Blue Tsunami.

Super-Democratic majorities in both state houses.

All state elected officials are Democrats.

The Bay Area no longer has a single Republican congressperson—and guess who else doesn’t?

Orange County, home of modern Republican conservatism, where the John Birch Society was born, whose money has fueled Republican campaign coffers for decades, the beating heart of Reagan Country. Orange County’s seven congressional seats, long Republican, have been swept clean of Trumpism. All seven representatives are now Democratic.

Let that sink in. Orange County. Red to blue overnight.

This is a revolution of unprecedented scope and importance. California—from north to south and east to west—has utterly repudiated the Republican Party. It has vomited them out, and for one reason, and one reason only:

Trump.

Almost every elected official who had anything to do with him went down to crushing defeat. Trump is so toxic in California, people would vote for Ebola over him. This tale isn’t just about Democratic bragging rights about our victories–although we have every right–but California Republicans, shell-shocked into finally telling the truth they tried so long and so hard to avoid. They include Kristin Olsen, who was the Republican leader in the California Assembly. Now the de facto coroner for the California Republican Party, her official verdict is: “The Grand Old Party is dead [and] isn’t salvageable.”

They didn’t just lose. They’re dead.

I am cutting my own commentary short today because of the importance of reading the Politico article (here’s the link again) and if you have the time, Ms. Olsen’s, too (here’s that link), which was published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

See you tomorrow.

* This includes the official state surplus plus a “rainy day fund” Brown instituted–roughly 50% each.

Jared: All it would take, Sir, is for you to tell them to mobilize. We could take over the country in a few hours.

DT: I’m considering it. Bannon tells me they’ve been getting ready for more than a year. He figures they can have 100,000 armed guerillas take over local governments and media centers.

Ivanka: Good! They should take over CNN and arrest Wolf Blitzer.

Melania: He’s a homo.

Don Jr.: That Chris Matthews is even worse. They should arrest all of them.

Jared: And they should shut down the failing New York Times.

Melania: I think there is fried chicken in Nice.

DT: We’ll shut them all down. Every one of the snowflakes. They’ll be sorry.

[Jared’s cell phone rings]

Jared: Dad? It’s Netanyahu. [Trump takes the phone]

DT: Bibi? That you? I’ll put you on speakerphone.

Netanyahu: Donald! Oy gevalt, what’s this I hear?

DT: It’s true, we’re going to the mattresses. We’re at war with the liberals and the fake news media.

Netanyahu: Can I help, Donald? You want to borrow my Mossad?

DT: Can they take Mueller out and make it look like Hillary did it?

Netanyahu: They can do anything, Donald.

Melania: Donald, dear, is that Bibi? Tell him tell Sara stay strong! She’s so misunderstood. So what if she kick servants around? That is what servants for.

Ivanka: I’m very nice to our servants. Isn’t that right, Jared?

Jared: Yes, dear.

DT: You have to let them know who’s boss. You have to be tough, like the way I kick Lindsay around!

Eric: Dad, you’re the toughest—

Melania: Speaking of servants, Donald, did you get rid of that awful Ricardel person?

DT: Yes, my pet. She no longer works in the White House.

Melania: I want her in jail.

Ivanka: Mom, what did she do, anyway?

Melania: She pushy bitch.

Eric: Pushy.

Don Jr.: Dad, do you want her in jail? I can pass the word to Whitaker.

DT: I’ll tell you who I want in jail: Pocahontas.

Ivanka: I know, Daddy! And she’s so dumpy. Women are just jealous of me because I’m a size 2.

Melania: I’m size 2, sweetie.

[all silent]

Eric: I have a plan—

[Trump’s phone rings]

DT: Hello? Vladimir! Nice to hear from you. What’s up? Yes, I’m still your little poodly-woodly, Vlad. Yes, your good little lap dog, slurp slurp. What? The pee-pee tape? You’re not going to release it, are you? Good, Vlad, good. Say, by the way, you didn’t do a very good job in our Congressional election. What’s up with that? Oh, you’ll do better in 2020? Well, that’s good. Yes, Vlad, yes, I’ll continue to undermine NATO, if it’s so important to you. Okay, well, you have a nice day too. Bye!

Eric: How is Uncle Vlad doing, Dad?

DT: Jared, can’t you get the Jews to vote Republican? I thought you were tight with them.

Jared: Just Chabad, Dad. You know, the crazies.

DT: What’s wrong with the rest of them?

Jared: They’re all snowflakes. Twinkies. Homos.

Don Jr.: I knew a Jew once. He was a homo.

Melania: Back in home country, we not like Jews. Old timers know what to do with them. [she draws a hand across her throat]

DT: Yeah, well, first we have to win this war and then we can deal with our enemies.

Eric: We have lots of enemies, don’t we, Pops?

[Trump looks at Eric, ignores him]

DT: Say, I’m getting hungry. Mel, call the Secret Service and tell them I want a Big Mac. No, make that four Big Macs, with fries and a chocolate shake. Two chocolate shakes. While I’m waiting, I’ll be tweeting about cereal.

In the early Fall of 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France and Italy met in Germany with Hitler, where they acceded to his demand that Czechoslovakia be dismembered, its Sudetenland region to pass to German control. This was the famous Munich Agreement, to which the Czechs themselves were not even invited, even though their country was being destroyed by others.

This Munich Agreement came to be understood as “appeasement,” now a dirty word in politics. But at the time, following the ghastly slaughter of World War I, Europe was horrified by the prospects of another war, and the Munich Agreement was seen by most as a wise and careful keeping-of-the-peace on the Continent.

No one saw it this way more than the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. When he came back to London bearing the signed protocol, he declared, to a cheering crowd, “I have returned from Germany with peace for our time.” It surely was one of the more unfortunate statements any world leader ever made.

At least one British politician wasn’t buying it. Winston Churchill then was not in the government; he merely represented his district, Epping, near London. For the previous four or five years, Churchill had warned Parliament, his fellow countrymen and anyone who would listen of the growing Hitler menace. Few cared. The period 1934-1949 has been called Churchill’s “years in the wilderness” because, out of power, disliked by many in Parliament, a bit of a showboat, he was perceived as a rather excitable, cranky and dangerous old man, ranting (albeit in memorable phrases) about a Germany few Englishmen felt any reason to fear.

After Chamberlain returned from Munich, Churchill, on Oct. 5, 1938, gave a remarkable speech in the House of Commons. It was a scathing indictment of the Prime Minister. Churchill’s best biographer, Roy Jenkins, calls it “a speech of power and intransigence.” Among its more memorable phrases: “We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat…the utmost [Chamberlain] has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia…has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course…All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the darkness.”

Churchill suffered immediately from the speech. Even his Parliamentary friends thought it intemperate and unfair to “the Prince of Peace,” as many were calling Chamberlain. His re-election prospects in Epping dimmed. Churchill himself called this episode“one of the major political crises” he had ever experienced (although he was returned to office). Jenkins, the biographer—no political slouch himself, he rose to be Chancellor of the Exchequer–in analyzing this period writes with insight of the balancing act Churchill had at that time to perform: he must respect his constituents’ views, on the one hand (and his Epping constituents were pro-peace and pro-Chamberlain), while on the other hand remaining true to his ideals and beliefs. Churchill chose, in that speech, to side with the handful of militants who believed Chamberlain had sold out a tiny country in the name of appeasing a menacing dictator.

“Politics,” writes Jenkins, “could hardly function without militants. But the difficulty of sustaining enthusiasm without giving militants excessive power has been one of the perennial problems of democratic government.”

Meaning that the wise politician, who aims to be re-elected while simultaneously and hopefully making a mark in History, needs his militants to provide the energy of political support that wins elections. But that politician has to recognize that militants may contain the seeds of their, and his own, destruction. Churchill, throughout his long (55 years) career in Parliament, was not always the most cautious politician, and often found himself in trouble, McCain-like, with his own party. But he did manage successfully to negotiate the shoals of the political vicissitudes that blew in England during his turbulent years of service. Whenever he tacked too far one way, he corrected course, and this kept him alive.

We have now, in America, a leader decidedly not in the Churchillian mold, either rhetorically, or with anywhere near the same political skills not to mention basic human decency. Trump would have profited from reading Jenkins’ advice to keep your militants close but not allow them to write his entire playbook. I understand, as a student of history and politics, that Trump had to play to the Tea Party, evangelicals and neo-nazis, in order to get elected. But once he did get elected, he ought to have realized z fundamental principle of politics: When you have your base by the short hairs, move to the middle. Where else could his white-nationalist right flank go, if he turned in a more moderate direction? He might even broaden his base. Bill Clinton understood this implicitly when, for instance, he criticized Sista Souljah. He knew that some Lefties and African-Americans would be pissed. But who else did they have?

Donald Trump needs a Sista Souljah moment but he’s not going to have one, because he can’t allow any daylight between himself and the cult of Fox “News,” Breitbart, Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing propaganda machine. He doesn’t understand what a great favor he’d do for himself if, say, he supported the recounts in Georgia and Florida, or if he condemned Steve King’s overt racism, or if he had a few kind words to say about transgendered people (probably, Ivanka could dig up a few), or if he admitted that he’s been wrong, climate change is a big problem and is exacerbated by human activity. If he did any of these things, the Right would howl, but stick with him, while Democrats would have to publicly praise him. He might even salvage a few independents.

But he can’t, for two reasons. First, he doesn’t possess the political skills. Secondly, and more importantly, he can’t repudiate the more egregious sins of his base, because he believes in the same things. He really is a racist. He really is a homophobe. He really does support white nationalists like Alex Jones, and he really does believe in suppressing minority voting. Trump is no Churchill, obviously. He isn’t even a Bill Clinton. He isn’t like anything we’re known before. But he is like, or aspires to be like, the man whom Churchill, in his wilderness, warned the world about.

Stepping into dogshit isn’t the most pleasurable thing, but journalists sometimes have to subject themselves to nasty experiences in order to understand and report what’s really happening. It was in this intrepid spirit of discovery that I visited the website of The Daily Stormer [TDS], which calls itself “the most censored publication in history.”

I don’t know that that characterization is accurate; at any rate, the “other” most censored publications in history—Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Tropic of Cancer, Lolita, The Satanic Verses—are High Literature, whereas The Daily Stormer is the dogshit to which I referred. But as I say, in the spirit of journalism, I offer you this brief description of it, so that you, yourself, don’t have to go there.

Most of TDS’s articles are on these topics:

Pro-Trump

Anti-European

Anti-Immigrant

Pro-Homophobia

Anti-Media [except for fox]

Anti-Black

Pro-Nationalism

Anti-Semitism

of which the last, anti-Semitism, constitutes the core of TDS’s raison d’etre. The attacks on Jews are truly bizarre: it’s not in the particulars, which vary from day to day, but in the psychoneurotic obsession the site’s writers have with Jews. Do they secretly envy us? Hitler too suffered from this obsession; it drove him insane, and because nobody stopped him, 80 million people died, large tracts of Europe were reduced to rubble, and Germany ceased to exist as a country.

Trump may have a similar legacy; we’ll see. In the meantime, if there were a satiric publication that pretended to be anti-semitic, a sort of Colbert Report parody of race-baiting violence, TDS would qualify. It’s so patently ridiculous–think Mad Magazine–that you can hardly believe these people are serious. “Jewish Comic Book Propagandist Stan Lee Finally Dies.” I mean, really?

The National Enquirer achieved its reputation for satiric humor with funny headlines like “Supreme Court Justice Scalia Murdered By A Hooker.” Intelligent people understood that the Enquirer’s stories were fake, and that its headlines were written by very talented, rather cynical New Yorkers who knew how to catch shopper’s eyes. What we didn’t know (but do now) was that the Enquirer’s publisher, David Pecker, was a closet supporter of Trump; Pecker’s lies were meant to influence feeble-minded, low-information white people to hate on Democrats.

The Daily Stormer is the online equivalent of The National Enquirer. Much creative effort goes into crafting its articles in a way that maximally excites white, rightwing nationalists. TDS’s publisher, Andrew Anglin, works in the David Pecker mold, with an additional twist: his idol is Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist, who invented many of the modern techniques of inciting race hatred amongst the neurotic, frightened masses.

(Standup segue: Here’s a headline inspired by the National Enquirer and The Daily Stormer: Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin Caught in Gay Sex Orgy With Eric and Donald Trump Junior)

The name, Daily Stormer, was appropriated by Anglin from the newspaper Der Sturmer, one of the Nazi Party’s favorite rags (which, incidentally, Hitler privately ridiculed). TDS’s connection with Nazis stems directly from Anglin’s fascination with them; his most memorable quote is “By the Grace of God, I found Adolf Hitler.”

I have found myself lately caught up in debates over what constitutes free speech. Rightwingers have criticized my writings concerning Isabella Chow, the conservative Christian who is leading the anti-transgender fight on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Her supporters ask me why I would censor Chow but allow, say, Bernie Sanders to speak on campus. My response has been that not all “free” speech is equal. We do not allow certain forms of speech that are based on inciting violence. You can’t tweet that you want to kill Trump without expecting a nasty visit from the Secret Service.

Free speech is an important issue, and we do have to tread cautiously when we make decisions about what’s allowed and what isn’t. When all those social media companies—Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify—removed Alex Jones’ (Info Wars) content, they certainly engaged in censorious behavior: let’s be clear about that. But they made the decision—correctly, in my judgment—that preventing the violence Jones’ comments provoke outweighs in importance protecting his free speech rights.

Surely we can agree with their decision: some forms of expression have to be eliminated to protect domestic tranquility, a phrase the Founders included in the Preamble to the Constitution, by which they meant that peace, calm, and law and order ought to prevail in America, for the benefit of all. When you have voices like Jones’, Anglin’s, Chow’s and, yes, Trump’s instigating hatred and fear, that is the opposite of “peace and calm.” They provoke, not domestic tranquility, but domestic terrorism. Unless you desire domestic unrest—which can lead only to the worst possible outcome—you have to be in favor of silencing these voices. If you had a wound you wouldn’t keep picking at it; you’d leave it alone to let the body’s natural defenses heal you. Same thing: Jones, Anglin, Chow, Trump, they all pick at America’s wounds. They don’t want healing.

But why not? They, themselves, are not honest enough to admit their motives, leaving the rest of us to infer what they’re really up to. Here’s my suspicion: they want civil war. They really do. They think their young white thugs are tougher, stronger, more numerous and better equipped at warfare than we snowflake, elite, gay coastal liberals, if it comes to shooting. That’s where things stand: and with each passing day, I sense what’s coming: open battles in the streets in America, the immediate spark being the Right’s insistence that nothing happen to Trump no matter what criminal activities Mueller proves him to have committed. The rest of us—the majority–will insist on Justice being done. Justice will not be done, if Trump and his brownshirts prevail. The clash will be a stark illustration of that old, rhetorical question: “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” We’re about to find out.